The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to an electrical connector having a positioning device with at least two identical positioning members for assisting in mounting the connector to a printed circuit board.
An electrical instrument commonly use myriad electrical connectors for accomplishing electrical connections between inner components of the electrical instrument or between systems for signal transmission and power transfer. Methods for fixing an electrical connector to a mating circuit board usually adopt Through Hole Technology (THT) or Surface Mount Technology (SMT).
The method of THT requires a plurality of through holes in the circuit board for receiving soldering ends of corresponding contacts of the connector therein. These through holes reduce the valuable space of the circuit board (which usually is a multi-layer board) for accommodating circuit lines.
The SMT directly welds soldering ends of corresponding contacts of the connector to a face of the circuit board on which the connector is mounted. Thus, more circuitry lines can be accommodated in the arranged circuit board in comparison with the THT, thereby enabling a design engineer to more conveniently arrange the circuit layout in the circuit board. To help the connector to be securely mounted on the circuit board, positioning devices in the form of soldering pads have been introduced to be fixed to the housing of the connector. The positioning devices are soldered to the circuit board by SMT thereby enhancing the connecting strength between the connector and the circuit board.
A conventional SMT type electrical connector is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,232,379. As shown in FIG. 1, a soldering pad 10 cooperates with another soldering pad (not shown) having a different configuration to constitute a positioning device for enhancing the mounting strength of the conventional electrical connector (not shown) to a circuit board. the soldering pad 10 has a L-shaped main body 12 comprising a horizontal section 14 and a vertical section 15. A bottom surface 13 of the horizontal section 14 is surface mounted to a mating circuit board (not shown) for fixing the connector. An upper side wall of the vertical section 15 is bent to form a U-shaped latching section 16 for attaching to an insulative housing of the connector. The latching section 16 includes a positioning body 18 parallel to the vertical section 15. The positioning body 18 forms a latching bar 22 for cooperating with the latching section 14 to attach the positioning device 10 to the connector thereby ensuring reliable electrical connection between the connector and the circuit board. each soldering pad has a complicated configuration. Furthermore, it needs two types of pressing die to form the two soldering pads. Thus, the cost for forming the positioning device is high.
Another conventional positioning device for an SMT type connector is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,186,654. The positioning device forms several barbs and latching bars for engaging with an insulative housing of a connector thereby facilitating soldering of contacts of the connector to a mating circuit board. However, the positioning device comprises a pair of members of different configurations, which require to be separately manufactured, to be fixed to opposite sides of the housing thereby increasing costs.